CH. XIIl] CALCULATING PRODIGIES 265 



In this chapter I propose to describe briefly the doings of the 

 more famous calculating prodigies. It will be seen that their 

 performances were of much the same general character, though 

 carried to different extents, hence in the later cases it will 

 be enough to indicate briefly peculiarities of the particular 

 calculators. 



I confine myself to self-taught calculators, and thus exclude 

 the consideration of a few public performers who by practice, 

 arithmetical devices, and the tricks of the showman have 

 simulated like powers. I also concern myself only with those 

 who showed the power in youth. As far as I know the only 

 self-taught mathematician of advanced years whom I thus 

 exclude is John Wallis, 1616 — 1703, the Savilian Professor at 

 Oxford, who in middle-life developed, for his own amusement, 

 his powers in mental arithmetic. As an illustration of his 

 achievements, I note that on 22 December 1669 he, when in 

 bed, occupied himself in finding (mentally) the integral part of 

 the square root of 3 x 10 40 ; and several hours afterwards wrote 

 down the result from memory. This fact having attracted 

 notice, two months later he was challenged to extract the 

 square root of a number of fifty-three digits; this he per- 

 formed mentally, and a month later he dictated the answer 

 which he had not meantime committed to writing. Such efforts 

 of calculation and memory are typical of calculating prodigies. 



One of the earliest of these prodigies, of whom we have 

 records, was Jedediah Buxton, who was born in or about 1707 

 at Elmton, Derbyshire. Although a son of the village school- 

 master, his education was neglected, and he never learnt to 

 write or cipher. With the exception of his power of dealing 

 with large numbers, his mental faculties were of a low order : 

 he had no ambition, and remained throughout his life a farm- 

 labourer, nor did his exceptional skill with figures bring him 

 any material advantage other than that of occasionally receiving 

 small sums of money from those who induced him to exhibit 

 his peculiar gift. He does not seem to have given public 

 exhibitions. He died in 1772. 



He had no recollection as to when or how he was first 



